Twins signing 4 of MLB's top 50 international prospects in 2025 class

It's international signing day in Major League Baseball, and the Twins have been busy finalizing agreements to sign several exciting young prospects. As one of eight teams with the maximum international bonus pool of $7,555,500, Minnesota has the ammo to bring in a strong class.

The Twins have signed nine players as of Wednesday afternoon, according to Baseball America. No, they aren't landing the No. 1 player, Japanese pitching sensation Roki Sasaki, but they're loading up on intriguing teenagers from Venezuela and the Dominican Republic (these players are all roughly 16 years old). Four of the nine made MLB.com's list of the top 50 international prospects in this class.

Here's Minnesota's haul, which includes four outfielders, three infielders, a catcher, and a pitcher. The top four have their MLB.com ranking listed.

Santiago Leon, SS, Venezuela (No. 24)
Carlos Taveras, OF, Dominican Republic (No. 26)
Haritzon Castillo, SS, Venezuela (No. 43)
Teilon Serrano, OF, Dominican Republic (No. 50)
Santiago Castellanos, RHP, Venezuela
Jose Barrios, SS, Venezuela
Joyner Perez, OF, Dominican Republic
Jhomnardo Reyes, OF, Dominican Republic
Aaron Salazar, C, Venezuela

Leon is the son of former longtime Twins scout Jose Leon. He's reportedly signing for $1.7 million. Taveras will likely be in the $1-$1.5 million range, Castillo is signing for just shy of $950K, and Serrano — who was originally expected to sign with the Dodgers before flipping to the Twins — is signing for just shy of $850K. Barrios is not ranked as a top-50 prospect, but he got a solid $422.5K to sign. Castellanos is inherently interesting because he's a pitcher who is apparently already throwing his fastball in the upper 90s at 16 years old.

Two offseasons ago, the Twins hired Roman Barinas from the Dodgers as their new director of Latin American scouting, believing he could help advance and modernize their process in that area. It appears he's already making an impact on the organization.

Because of their age, international prospects are essentially all long shots. But some of them inevitably pan out. Some of the biggest stars in baseball (Yordan Alvarez, Ronald Acuna Jr., Jose Ramirez, etc.) signed as international free agents as teenagers. The Twins famously signed Miguel Sano, Jorge Polanco, and Max Kepler in their 2009 international class. They added Luis Arraez that way in 2013. Emmanuel Rodriguez, signed in 2019, is the Twins' No. 2 prospect and has a good chance to make his highly-anticipated MLB debut this year.

So while they're all lottery tickets, it's entirely possible one or more of the nine players the Twins are signing this year could become top prospects and perhaps MLB contributors towards the end of this decade and into the 2030s.

Last year, the Twins signed two of MLB.com's top 50 international prospects, Daiber De Los Santos and Eduardo Beltre. Both had strong debut seasons in the Dominican Summer League. Improving their number of top-50 prospects to four this year is an encouraging sign.